When Anne Barrett was laid off from Bethesda Game Studios Austin, it happened in a two-minute Teams call. Cameras off. Microphones off. A studio manager read a prepared statement, warned staff their Slack access would be cut shortly, and that was it. Seven years of her career, at the studio she had wanted to work at since college, ended before she could say a word.
Barrett is one of 3,200 Xbox employees laid off following a July 6th email from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma under the heading "Resetting Xbox" – the most significant restructuring in Microsoft's gaming history. 1,600 of those roles were eliminated immediately. Studios including Bethesda Game Studios, ZeniMax Online Studios, id Software, and Bethesda Game Studios Montreal were all affected.
The human cost of it has largely been buried under the business headlines. The Guardian's reporting brought some of those stories into focus, and what the affected developers said about the state of AAA gaming deserves more attention than the stock figures get.
What Has Been Lost
The layoffs at id Software, creator of Doom and Quake, cut 136 staff – reportedly a majority of the studio's workforce. VFX artist Derek Best described in a LinkedIn...
